How Many Bank Accounts Can I Open at President’s Choice Financial? Why Would Anyone Want More than One Bank Account?

As I continue to compare the two major online low or no-fee Canadian banks, I decided to check how many Savings and Chequing accounts a client can have at PC Financial.

Why Would Anyone Want Two or More Bank Accounts?

If you read financial chat boards you’ll quickly find that some people are more visual than others when it comes to money. They need to see money in separate envelopes or jars in order to stay on budget. If they just carry a wad of bills in their wallets, they spend their child’s hockey stick money on a nice lunch out with their friends. Other people mentally keep track of what money is for which purpose and have no trouble staying on budget.

The same thing applies to bank accounts. Some people need to see their “next car” money in one account and their “I can spend this on lunch” money in another. These people often like Tangerine where you can have up to 5 Savings accounts.

Won’t I Pay More Fees and Earn Less Interest If I Have Several Small Bank Accounts?

At most of the big Canadian banks, yes. But both PC Financial and Tangerine do not charge a fee or require a minimum balance in a Savings or Chequing account. There is no additional cost to having more than one account.

Both PC Financial and Tangerine also pay the same interest on every dollar in a Savings account. So you’d earn the same interest whether you had all your savings in one account as you would if you split the money between three accounts.

What Does the Primary Account Holder at PC Financial Mean?

PC Financial sets up its joint bank accounts in an odd manner. It assigns the account to one person and then adds the name of the other.

As I’ve described elsewhere, we made the mistake of setting up our joint chequing account with my husband as the Primary Account Holder and me as the secondary.

The Primary Account Holder is the one PCF contacts about promotions and offers. That person must, for example, request a special higher savings interest rate be used for the account during a promotion.

I’ve asked PCF and they cannot change the Primary Account Holder once the account is created.

How Many Savings Accounts Can I Have at PC Financial?

I could not find the answer to this on the PC Financial website, so I used their Live Chat feature to ask an agent.

Surprisingly, to me, you can have as many Savings accounts as you want! The number is not limited.

There are two conditions:

You must apply separately for each new Savings account.

You can only have two bank accounts, of any kind, linked to your ABM card.
That means if you have, say, 4 savings accounts and 1 no fee chequing account you would have to use online or telephone banking only to move the money to 3 of the savings accounts. Considering that the purpose of those extra savings accounts is probably to save for longer-term goals, that isn’t a great hardship.

You can also have more than one joint Savings account. Each account will have its own Primary Account Holder designated based on your application.

How Many Chequing Accounts Can I Have at PC Financial?

I could also not find the answer to this on the PC Financial website, so I used their Live Chat feature to ask an agent.

Surprisingly, to me, you can have as many Chequing accounts as you want! The number is not limited.

There are three conditions:

You must apply separately for each new Chequing account.

You will only earn interest on the amount in each Chequing account not on the total of the amount in all of your Chequing accounts. Because the interest rate is higher if you have more money in your Chequing account, you may get less total interest if you split the money between 2 or more Chequing accounts.

You can only have two bank accounts, of any kind, linked to your ABM card.
That means if you have, say, 1 savings account and 2 no fee chequing accounts you would have to use online or telephone banking only to move the money to the savings account or to one of the chequing accounts.

You can also have more than one joint Chequing account. Each account will have its own Primary Account Holder designated based on your application.

Conclusion

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find that PC Financial is very flexible about how many accounts you can open. Tangerine is more limiting.

Related Reading

Which Bank is Better Tangerine or PC Financial: Part Four: If You Want Many Savings Accounts

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Do you prefer to keep your savings for different goals in separate accounts? Or do you keep all of your money, both long-term savings and short-term bill payments in one chequing account? Please share your preferences with a comment.